LightRoom (Page 3): Scott Kelby has a lot of great videos about using lightroom. He is a great teacher and explains everything in simple easy to understand ways. A lot of his videos...

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Greg-Joseph wrote:

I am trying to learn to use the many editing features of Lightroom/Photoshop. So far, I have not been able to understand the initial process. I want to place my camera card in my computer and place a series of pictures in LightRoom/Photoshop. I would then like to edit each pic. If someone were able to offer a few simple pointers to get me started, I would really appreciate the help.

Scott Kelby has a lot of great videos about using lightroom. He is a great teacher and explains everything in simple easy to understand ways. A lot of his videos are free on YouTube. You can also go to KelbyOne.com. He has a ton of content there not only lightroom but photoshop and everything else photography. I believe you can have free access right now for a limited time. I have a paid membership and it has paid for itself many times over. It’s well worth the price.

Raptor

Lynda is very good. You could also buy the book from Scott Kelby. He is a fantastic teacher and has the best approach to organizing your LR library that I have found. Also, the chapters are thoughtlyfully written and easy to follow.

MG Audet

Suggest you go to You Tube and search the many free tutorials on Lightroom.

Michael

Jerry M

check out the Steve Perry link listed below. One thing to do for sure is to get your library set up correctly at the very beginning so you have an easy to follow and easy to find way to locate your photos.

jgunkler

While Cindy's method works it contains an unnecessary step. Insert the memory card into your computer, open Lightroom, and import the photos into any folder you want. You can even create a new folder for the photos from within Lightroom during the Import prices.

CindyHouk wrote:

First you should copy them from your camera card to an internal hard drive or an external drive. Then Open LR > File > Import > browse to the location you copied the files to and select the folder or photo's you want to import.

Now you can start playing with editing. Google Lightroom tutorials...there are some really good ones for beginners out there.

allenetheridge

I bring in all pictures via Lightroom from RAW files on my camera. The import function allows me to look at each picture and select what I want to actually keep. This help weed out a lot of so-so pictures and saves disk space. There are basic edit in LR. For more advanced editing pictures I use the "edit in" feature to send the picture to Photoshop. When you save in Photoshop it places an image back into LR in a .TIFF format. All LR edits are non-destructive and the cataloging feature is a big plus.

Raptor

Scott Kelby says to always copy first to your drive, internal or external. That way you have control when importing to Lightroom. As we all know, LR sometimes has a mind of its own!!

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

Greg-Joseph wrote:

I am trying to learn to use the many editing features of Lightroom/Photoshop. So far, I have not been able to understand the initial process. I want to place my camera card in my computer and place a series of pictures in LightRoom/Photoshop. I would then like to edit each pic. If someone were able to offer a few simple pointers to get me started, I would really appreciate the help.

Youtube videos!!!

10MPlayer Loc: California

allenetheridge wrote:

I bring in all pictures via Lightroom from RAW fil... (show quote)

Just don't forget to use the keywords function to tag the images so you can find them later, like many years later.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Greg-Joseph wrote:

I am trying to learn to use the many editing features of Lightroom/Photoshop. So far, I have not been able to understand the initial process. I want to place my camera card in my computer and place a series of pictures in LightRoom/Photoshop. I would then like to edit each pic. If someone were able to offer a few simple pointers to get me started, I would really appreciate the help.

There are several ways to get images from your card to your LR catalog. I use the following:

1) Open Lightroom, Library module.
2) Lower left corner, above the filmstrip, click on the Import button
3) In the next screen, hover the mouse over the the upper right corner and when it "lights up" click on it.
4) The next screen will show you a list of your previous import locations, and at the very top, you will see "other destination" - clicking on it will open a Windows Explorer window (or Finder on a Mac). Here you can use the Explorer or Finder tool to create a new folder and select it. Once you have done this, click done, and you will be returned to the previous screen. Highlight the "Copy" option at the top center of the screen to let Lr know you want it to copy the images. Click on Import at the lower right corner, and your images will be copied to the location you created in the previous step. The files will be automatically added to the catalog with this step.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

Raptor wrote:

Scott Kelby says to always copy first to your drive, internal or external. That way you have control when importing to Lightroom. As we all know, LR sometimes has a mind of its own!!

I don't get this. You have more control importing files from your card through Lightroom. Lightroom will show you all the files on the card, which ones are already in Lightroom and which ones need importing. (In case you forget to delete or reformat your card) It will give you complete control of where to put them and allow you to add some keywords while this is happening. In lightroom I use s folder I call 'downloads' (cleaver ehh?) Everything goes into that. (Sometimes into a sub folder within downloads.) Now they are in the computer, Lightroom knows where they are and they have some keywords. I'll sort them more when I get time. Putting them in the computer and then into Lightroom is just a wasted step.
...Cam

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

Raptor wrote:

Lynda is very good. You could also buy the book from Scott Kelby. He is a fantastic teacher and has the best approach to organizing your LR library that I have found. Also, the chapters are thoughtlyfully written and easy to follow.

It really helps when learning Lightroom to have two monitors. Run the video on one with Lightroom open on the other. You can pause at each steep to try it or back up if you miss something or don't quite understand. I would fill a camera card with garbage pictures while learning to import and add the first keywords (part of the import process.) Nothing lost of you muck it up.
...Cam

IDguy Loc: Idaho

CindyHouk wrote:

First you should copy them from your camera card to an internal hard drive or an external drive. Then Open LR > File > Import > browse to the location you copied the files to and select the folder or photo's you want to import.

Now you can start playing with editing. Google Lightroom tutorials...there are some really good ones for beginners out there.

Sheesh. Wrong advice to start.

Import from your camera or card into Lightroom telling it where to copy your images. Never again do things with your image files outside of Lightroom, other than when you back up your image file folders (and the Lightroom Catalog).

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Raptor wrote:

Scott Kelby says to always copy first to your drive, internal or external. That way you have control when importing to Lightroom. As we all know, LR sometimes has a mind of its own!!

I don’t recall that and do not agree anyway. But I’ll check his book.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Raptor wrote:

Scott Kelby says to always copy first to your drive, internal or external. That way you have control when importing to Lightroom. As we all know, LR sometimes has a mind of its own!!

Please point to his quote as I seriously doubt he has ever said anything like this, at least in the manner you portray it. The beauty of Lr is that it makes things easier and faster, not harder and longer. I import my images through Lr to both their standard location as well as their backup location at the same time. One of Lr's primary purposes in life is image management. Best of luck.